SHARING IS CARING.

just got some more of my film back from our trip to denver & MPLS. i thought i'd share some of my faves.

denver may not be the coolestplaceintheworld. but I SAY, anywhere is awesome if you can bring your camera(s).

the first 3 shots are taken in mitchell, sodak:


view of denver from our hotel room:



one of my favorite shots of bak. to go in a rather large file of other favorite shots:

this building fascinated me for some reason:
you can't really tell, but i am holding up a "ONE" for our first year being married:

WHAT?!?!??!?!?!?

I AM 29 YEARS OLD?!?!?!?!

HOW DID THAT HAPPEN!??!?!

[for a small fee, you too, can have a really flattering self-portrait that i create with my own two genius (and highly artistically gifted) hands...please, don't all rush me @ once. my gifted hands thank you.]

great REMINDER:

"He [the true seeker] must never seek to exalt himself above any one,

must wash away from the tablet of his heart every trace of pride and vain-glory,

must cling unto patience and resignation, observe silence and refrain from idle talk.

For the tongue is a smoldering fire, and excess of speech a deadly poison.

Material fire consumeth the body, whereas the fire of the tongue devoureth both heart and soul."

~ Bahá’u’lláh (Prophet of the Baha'i Faith)

[ UMMMM, how crazy is THIS cloud?? yep. preeeetty crazy. ]

happiness is my samimi-moore family.

i just got back from a wonderful vacation to reunite with my brothers, their beautiful wives & my most treasured niece, elsa bee. the saint paul farmers market is amazing, to say the least. everything is local and organic. YUM YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM: baktash told me if he hadn't married me, he'd have married my brother, na'im:the prettiest flower is the one with the strawberry blonde hair - hands diggity down:of course it wouldn't have been a minnesota vacation if we didn't hang out on the lake and go jump off speedboats:the amazing firecracker of a girl:i was telling elsa, "say cheeeeeese!" dangit, only i am saying cheese. which i still don't understand to this day. please someone, explain to me the reason for saying "cheese" when smiling. makesnosensewhatsoever. [ the lake was actually really nice and refreshing, we weren't bathing in sewer, it just looks like it ]

me and the brudders. jorma was pinching/drawing focus to na'im's nipple - don't ask me:
so na'im & jorma are always the funniest in photos. the faces they make are pretty unbelievable. in this one, jorma thought it would be especially comical/genius to put his glasses upside down:


so, folks. let me tell you a little something about my family. we basically go to a city and scour the streets for the best espresso. on this trip, we toured the city, by finding the best, most delicious places to get a latte w/ extra foam, on the spot cold-pressed coffee, a macchiato that have FRIENDLY service. we boycotted this one jerk of a coffeeshop a year ago cos they were real jerks. like Jerks. so we basically spent all of our time out finding coffee shop & getting geeked. here are the coffeeshops we'd recommend in the twin cities, in case you care, or are ever there. in order of deliciousness (all were friendly):

• Angry Catfish
• Quixotic
• Spyhouse

DO NOT frequent:

• Kopplins Coffee
  

if you'd like these hyperlinked, i am sorry, i can't be bothered right now. google it, dear readers.

and of course, here is miss elsa finding none of us amusing. she just started rolling her eyes and it is probably the funniest/cutest thing i've ever seen. don't mind the pesto all over her. how can you blame her? i make a MEAN pesto. ;) and it would not be a fun drive on the long ars drive to MPLS from sodak without a very interesting stop @ the Corn Palace in mitchell, sodak. dude, the place is MADE out of corn. pretty trippy huh:i am so so very grateful for my siblings, my sister in laws & parents. i honestly don't believe i could have ever dreamed of a better family ever in the sphere of existence. the laughter, lightness of being & undeniable ease and happiness that comes when i spend time with my family is unmatched...my brother wrote today that though we are all so far apart geographically, he and his wife in china - my parents and younger sister in israel - jorma and melinda and elsa in st. paul - us in sodak - that we still manage to grow ever closer as the years go on...uniting our families, closer and closer with so much love & bliss.

i am blessed.
we are blessed.
♥

UMMMMMM just had to say how proud of myself i am; i messed around online for a couple of hours today and learned how to mess with my HTML to make my photos bigger in my blog posts! dude, who knew it was soooo easy to make my day!?!?

READY FOR MY TRIP TO GO SEE MY BROTHERS!!

OBVIOUSLY.
[we'll miss you boo boo!!! :( ]

note: only camera missing, is my ultimate fave that i take with me everywhere. it was resting in its little nook in my car...(my slick vivitar ultra wide/slim)

LOVE THEM:

m.ward has been one of my ALL TIME favorites for oh, just shy of 8 years now. and this duo is the best.

she&him just came out with a new video, which is pretty dang cute:

She & Him - Thieves from Merge Records on Vimeo.

summertime equals getting GEEKED off iced toddy in your bathing suit.

summertime is the best time. i was thinking this morning about how it is almost the middle of JULY ALREADY (!@*#&!%#!!!!)...and how summer goes by so fast...and how most of us wait for it all year (minus all you southern cali folks), and then it goes by in the blink of an eye, and then you find yourself waiting. and waiting. and waiting. for the next summer. maybe its just me? do you guys ever feel that way? like this morning, i told myself, "layli, there is still sooooo much summer stuff you've been waiting all year to do and you still haven't done it!!"...my repetitive demand chants "SEIZE THE SUMMER WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!".




one way i've been seizing it, is to drink copious amounts of toddy over ice with some 1/2 & 1/2. damn, this is the summer life. [recipe included below, please DO try..]

here are a couple of shots of our summer so far. it has been really wonderful. so far. so much more to come. in less than five days, i see my wittle baby bro and his wife. we're gonna get Krunk. as always, dear readers, i urge you to click on the photos to see them "actual" size. sooo much better than using your microscope to peek.

New Orleans Cold Drip Coffee

Scaled down from a Blue Bottle Coffee Company recipe, as appeared in the New York Times Magazine

Makes 1 1/2 cups coffee concentrate

1/5 pound dark roast coffee and chicory, medium ground (about 1 cup)
2 cups cold water
Ice
Milk

1. Put coffee in a nonreactive container, like a stainless-steel bowl. Add 1/4 cup water, stirring gently to wet the grounds, then add remaining water, agitating the grounds as little as possible. Cover and let steep at room temperature for 12 hours.

2. Strain coffee concentrate through a medium sieve, then again through a fine-mesh sieve.

3. To make iced coffee, fill a glass with ice, add ¼ cup coffee concentrate and 3/4 to 1 cup milk, then stir. To make café au lait, warm 3/4 to 1 cup milk in a saucepan or microwave, then pour into a mug and add ¼ cup coffee concentrate. (Concentrate will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.)

-- wherever you are, i truly hope you are enjoying your summer, with a nice friend, surrounded by love, family and the warmth of the sun. xoxo.

♥

AARDVARK SAUCE IS WHERE ITS AT. HAND DIGGITY DOWN.

a big ups to ellie saldana for sending us our crack. you haven't lived until you've had secret aardvark hot sauce from pee-dee-exxx. truly the best thing to happen to my tastebuds. [its habanero hot sauce]

you can get yer own here.

FLAKJAKT + RAH RAH = BAHA'IS ROCK

TWO BANDS. both with awesome Baha'i musicians. one is RAH RAH - which is my oldest friend, Leif's band from Regina, Sask. they're awesome and i posted their video before and now i'll post it again cos it fits so well with FLAKJAKT's video. the second is FLAKJAKT. i don't know flakjakt personally, though he is a mutual friend of many of mine...and he's a Baha'i. my dear friends, if you don't know already, Baha'is ROCK. they are so inspirational, creative, positive and working towards the betterment of society everyday in their own ways. this is one way i believe, steve failows of FLAKJAKT is bettering society = with dope ars music videos- one of the best i've seen all year...beautifully shot with really crisp and clean picture... thanks, flakjakt & marty martin for doing something radical!!

First Official iPhone 4 Music Video - flakjakt "Cascades" from Marty Martin. themartymartin.com on Vimeo.

Here is RAH RAH and i just adore this song so much, as i adore Leifer - big ups, my main man:

more on the Baha'i Faith here: www.bahai.org

this is what happens when you trip on drugs in nature =

many of you hip people have are probably already hip to this dude and his video. i, not being as hip as most of you, didn't catch this youtube clip until today via baktash via geoff. and i have to say it is LITERALLY one of the funniest things i have ever ever seen.

this is mainly for elise, peefy, raymond, sasha, PJ, jesse, logie & my dear sweet brother, namo. and most of you listed above are so much more hip than me, that you have probably already laughed/cried at this.

dear readers, if you haven't seen this -- PLEASE I BEG YOU TO GLUE YOUR HIP EYES AND EARS TO THIS CLIP UNTIL THE END. ALL THE WAY THROUGH, NO IFSANDSORBUTTS.

denver is fun

we went to denver to celebrate our one year anniversary. romantic? yes. our dream destination? no. fun as hell? hell yesh. when you live in rural south dakota and stare at golden waving prairies and puffy thick white clouds all day - anywhere seems exciting that has people WALKING around, and things that are open past 8pm, and coffee shops that know what microfoam is (i know we are snobs, but super radd coffee snobs who tip well!!), and restaurants that don't use american cheese and margarine. with extra margarine. so basically, what i am trying to say is it doesn't take much for baktash and i to be excited. so that is why denver was perfect. not to mention it is a surprisingly awesome hip city! we DUG it!!

here are some shots of our weekend there. HOW FORTUITOUS WAS IT THAT ON OUR ANNVIERSARY DAY WE WENT AND ATE AT AN OVERLY POPULATED HIPSTER JOINT THAT HAD A WORKING PHOTOBOOTH?!?!??! i think very.

we even managed to find a persian grocery store!! torshi and doogh come to us!! woot-woot!!
you can't see what i am holding/displaying, but it is a ashtray that is a dragon and a naked woman in love. it is really awesome and disgusting, to say the least.
the best coffee shop in denver with the sweetest, nicest owner, noah who started this shop 9 months ago. we loved it. a must try if you are ever in denver.
this photo is rad & one of my faves, even though the guy taking it was so nervous that it made us somewhat blurry. sigh. thanks anyway, nervous dude.

♥